the core of this book was about whining characters that was completely removed from the first book - absolutely no consistency with the characters from the first book - even allowing for different situations. It felt like it was written by someone that hadn't read the first book and who themselves was emotionally challenged.

What do you think your next listen will be?

not book three of this series - hopefully he doesn't hand off the writing of the gate thief to whomever he let write this drivel

What about the narrators’s performance did you like?

it was fine

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

no

Any additional comments?

the first book was good enough that you are going to read this one anyway - just don't expect much.

Card rehash's his classic teen hero from many of his other books, creates a really interesting method of time travel, sets up a great potential story in Pathfinder - then ruins it all with Ruins.

The characters frequently engage in needless conflict and endless introspection that serve no purpose to the story or the plot except to lengthen this story from a very short story to novel length. Often Card cheapens the stories with tricks to get the characters out of trouble, sometimes with contradictions so close together it is not forgivable as missed by the editor or reviewer. Further, the characters become caricatures of themselves as the story progresses (way too slowly). Exaggerated emotions and artificial tensions that break from the expectations of those characters defined in Pathfinder. I expect the over capable super teen from Card's books, but this is the first time the super teen's switched from acting like highly capable adults to pre-teen middle-school brats within a sentence and without any stimuli.

The book felt sloppy and rushed, and has left me wondering if I will bother with another Card book. I was very disappointed and felt robbed of the time spent listening to it.

The shallow, silly bickering between the characters was tiresome and made me, like most listeners, want to just skip many parts. The actual plot and story were only about 1/4 of the entire book. It could have been quite an interesting sequel but the absurdity of the characters constantly arguing about insipid, petty things ruined it. Very poor writing from a normally decent author.

What was most disappointing about Orson Scott Card’s story?

Poor character development.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The story was well narrated w/a decent cast.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The actual plot and story were interesting but it felt like this was really just part of the next book stretched out as much as possible with filler to make another in the series.

Am an OSC fan. I had to listen again to Pathfinder in anticipation of Ruins. It was downright disappointing. OSC had to constantly remind the readers of what happened in Pathfinder. This is the second book! We all read the first one so why the summary? There's not much action in this book either. Most of the story is a war of words. The characters mistrusting each other, self pity, bickering. The first half of this book was like that that I was tempted to just stop and ask for a credit. I mean, It was so annoying I trudged slowly to finish the book. Other OSC books I can get thru in one go. Not this one.

I would shorten it and have less arguing between the characters, it does tend to become a little bit boring. I also don't like the idea that Rigg ends up with a face mask.

If you’ve listened to books by Orson Scott Card before, how does this one compare?

The basic idea is better than the Homecoming Series, but it seems to flatten out quicker than the mentioned series. I think the same unfortunate fate has struck Pathfinder than the Mithermages' second book.

The story was good. The only cons are: The story is told in a series of conversations. And the ending is abrupt and unfinished. Other than that I liked it. I read the first one also. And I'll read the next.

Well, after waiting a year and a half for this book, I have to say it both meets my expectations and falls short in a few areas. It is definitely a different book than Pathfinder. Whereas the first book reads much like a fantasy story at first, where you know next to nothing about the world, this book is all about answers, or at least figuring them out. Almost everything we learned in the first book gets challenged or turned on its head. This book keeps you in fascination at the layers and layers of truth and mystery and history revealed, while being a time travel romp across many more lands than we saw in Pathfinder. The book ends well too, with a gripping end scene and a good setup for the end.

Like other reviewers though, I felt that there was a bit too much distrust in the characters this time. It's funny because I didn't really see that developing in the first book. I feel almost as though the author needed to beef up the book's size and so he put in tons and tons of inner thoughts and doubts in the characters. I also found a lot of similarities between this series and the Ender series because of that. Rigg has many personality similarities to Ender, and even the plot reuses a lot of themes from Speaker for the Dead, such as concepts of impending planetary destruction, genocide and the price of winning. Maybe it's just because I listened to it recently too, but I felt a lot of the common Card themes come back into play here.

Overall I enjoyed this book and this series as much as I have the Ender series, and I can't wait for the conclusion of the story.